254th Infantry Regiment- Page 4
(HILL 216 BATTLE CONTINUED FROM PAGE 3)
After I Company had cleared from in front of A, K Company moved out
eastward along the road. On turning south the company came under heavy
machine gun and mortar fire from below the chateau. Cautiously the unit
crossed the minefield as the scream of shrapnel coupled with the sharp crack of
well aimed bullets made the men want to leave the single path being probed
through the mine studded area. With the aid of well place mortar fire, K
reached the Weiss River, at its junction with the Fecht. Upon arriving at this
point about 2100, the company deployed west along the bank toward I
Company. As K began to dig in, the lack of the detached platoon was strongly
felt. At midnight a group from B Company was inserted between the two Third
Battalion companies.
The night following our first attack came and suddenly all the death we had
seen, the noise we had heard, the fear we had felt descended on us like an
avalanche, leaving us only cold ,wet and exhausted. Our first day of attack was
over. Even through our tiredness we realized that each of us was a wiser man
than he had been the day before. We knew that battle was not glorious; we
knew that our minds had been left with an imprint that even time could not fully
erase; we knew that we had been through something that none of us would ever
be able to adequately describe.
That night both I and K Companies were harrassed: I by small arms fire from
positions across the river east of the bridge and K by mortar and machine guns
in the woods to the left front. I Company sent a two-squad patrol around its
right flank and across the river. These men found and assaulted six foxholes. K
discovered that the mortar fire coming from its front was being directed from an
OP and after placing artillery on this position, the harassment was eliminated.
Only one further action remained for the regiment to complete its mission
around Hill 216--that of "mopping up" the west bank of the Fecht River down
to its junction with the Weiss. At 0940 C Company jumped off from its
defensive position of the night before to complete this task and to contact the
right flank of the 7th Infantry (3rd Div) just south of the Chateau. As C began
moving through the open fields which separated them from the thin strip of
woods on the west bank of the river, heavy fire from machine guns and 88's
pinned the company down about 800 yards from the river. So intense was this
fire that it became necessary for friendly artillery to lay smoke. With this cover
the company was able to gain the edge of the narrow strip of woods along the
river by 1400. Upon completion of this,we had accomplished our first offensive
mission. The green of our reputation lost another coat of its vanishing brillance.
A new feeling of pride surged through us-a pride born of combat- replacing the
cold and the fatigue. Tested in fire, the regiment proved that it could fight beside
the veteran units of the famous Third Division. There was never a day after Hill
216, that our heads did not rise just a little higher when we said, "I'm from the
254th Infantry."
Go to 254th Infantry Regiment- Page 5 (The Battle of Jebsheim)
After I Company had cleared from in front of A, K Company moved out
eastward along the road. On turning south the company came under heavy
machine gun and mortar fire from below the chateau. Cautiously the unit
crossed the minefield as the scream of shrapnel coupled with the sharp crack of
well aimed bullets made the men want to leave the single path being probed
through the mine studded area. With the aid of well place mortar fire, K
reached the Weiss River, at its junction with the Fecht. Upon arriving at this
point about 2100, the company deployed west along the bank toward I
Company. As K began to dig in, the lack of the detached platoon was strongly
felt. At midnight a group from B Company was inserted between the two Third
Battalion companies.
The night following our first attack came and suddenly all the death we had
seen, the noise we had heard, the fear we had felt descended on us like an
avalanche, leaving us only cold ,wet and exhausted. Our first day of attack was
over. Even through our tiredness we realized that each of us was a wiser man
than he had been the day before. We knew that battle was not glorious; we
knew that our minds had been left with an imprint that even time could not fully
erase; we knew that we had been through something that none of us would ever
be able to adequately describe.
That night both I and K Companies were harrassed: I by small arms fire from
positions across the river east of the bridge and K by mortar and machine guns
in the woods to the left front. I Company sent a two-squad patrol around its
right flank and across the river. These men found and assaulted six foxholes. K
discovered that the mortar fire coming from its front was being directed from an
OP and after placing artillery on this position, the harassment was eliminated.
Only one further action remained for the regiment to complete its mission
around Hill 216--that of "mopping up" the west bank of the Fecht River down
to its junction with the Weiss. At 0940 C Company jumped off from its
defensive position of the night before to complete this task and to contact the
right flank of the 7th Infantry (3rd Div) just south of the Chateau. As C began
moving through the open fields which separated them from the thin strip of
woods on the west bank of the river, heavy fire from machine guns and 88's
pinned the company down about 800 yards from the river. So intense was this
fire that it became necessary for friendly artillery to lay smoke. With this cover
the company was able to gain the edge of the narrow strip of woods along the
river by 1400. Upon completion of this,we had accomplished our first offensive
mission. The green of our reputation lost another coat of its vanishing brillance.
A new feeling of pride surged through us-a pride born of combat- replacing the
cold and the fatigue. Tested in fire, the regiment proved that it could fight beside
the veteran units of the famous Third Division. There was never a day after Hill
216, that our heads did not rise just a little higher when we said, "I'm from the
254th Infantry."
Go to 254th Infantry Regiment- Page 5 (The Battle of Jebsheim)
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